Northern Quarter (Hokkoku), from the series "Three Amusements of Contemporary Beauties (Tosei bijin sanyu)"

Northern Quarter (Hokkoku), from Kitagawa Utamaro's series Three Amusements of Contemporary Beauties (Tosei bijin sanyu), c. 1795, represents the woman who embodied the Yoshiwara pleasure district, conventionally called the Hokkoku or 'Northern Quarter' because of its location relative to the city center of Edo. The series sorts contemporary feminine ideals into three social registers (typically the high-ranking courtesan, the geisha, and the respectable townswoman), and this sheet stakes out the most luxurious of the three. Held in the Art Institute of Chicago, the print is characteristic mature Edo bijin-ga: Utamaro presents a half-length or three-quarter figure, isolating face and upper body so that hair ornaments, kimono pattern, and hand gesture become the primary expressive vehicles. The series belongs to the same ukiyo-e current as his Komei bijin and tosei fuzoku designs, in which categories of women, drawn from real urban experience rather than legend, are catalogued for connoisseurial comparison and quiet erotic appreciation by a sophisticated Edo audience.